


Code Name Wendigo

by bluebottle762



Series: Not All Are Born [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mutants, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2019-03-03 08:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13336887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebottle762/pseuds/bluebottle762
Summary: During a raid on a mutant research and testing facility, Mike and Levi discover a young boy who remembers his name.





	Code Name Wendigo

"Left." Mike nodded in the direction he’d indicated before turning on his heel and passing through a section of stained concrete wall directly to their left. The phaser was a man of little words, to the point, and intelligent. Levi would have preferred to work along side him regardless, but as it was he was the only one capable of keeping up with him. It was difficult to keep close to someone who could walk through walls at their leisure. Tailing him, he felt the familiar cold sensation that accompanied passing through something solid, assessing the new room the moment his sight returned to him. 

It was dingy, bare concrete like everything else below the facility, lit with a low green light that made the entire space feel as though it were underwater. The vague damp chill in the air did nothing to alleviate the illusion. A large ‘01’ was painted in neat black lettering on one wall. This was all background, however. 

Stood in the very centre of the room was some kind of tank, four glass walls, topped with a mesh roof, far too high for even Mike to reach. Above this was some form of rudimentary lift, a small platform, evidently designed to be lowered into the tank remotely. Presumably to service the tank’s inhabitant.

"What the shit is that-" Levi shot a look at Mike, before returning his attention to the sprawled mess of deathly pale limbs slumped on the stained floor of it’s enclosure. Mike shook his head, moving round the room to the small assembly of desks and computer set ups that crowded one side of the hangar like space. Looking for documentation, forever Erwin’s second. Moving toward the tank, Levi tried to get a better look at the thing. Emaciated, long limbed, every vertebra pushing a harsh bump up through the clammy looking skin of it’s back. Circling round, he got a look at it’s face, and very quickly wished he hadn’t. Large dark eyes stared right through him, pupil-less and without any discernible lids, set into a long, hollow face. It’s jaw, slightly open, was lined with sharp curving teeth, it’s tongue wide and flat, lolled out onto the cold grey floor.

"Dead." He didn’t need Mike to tell him that. Not taking his eyes off the thing, he took a step away from the glass. There were track marks up both it’s arms, a cannula still embedded in it’s elongated hand.

"What of?" Flicking through more notes and records, Mike took another few seconds to answer. 

"Looks like it gave out. Subject 01, male, 19, name of Hoover, Marcel." Finally taking his eyes off of the sad thing crumpled on the floor, Levi fixed Mike with a look. "Nothing we can do Levi."

"Take the documents." Mike held his gaze for a moment before nodding curtly and gathering the papers he deemed as important or identifying. One lost already and they hadn’t even started. After further searching the room, they moved on, again to the left.

The next room was nearly identical to the first, damp, cold, bleak and hopeless, glass tank dominating the center of the room. A black ‘02’ was painted where the previous ‘01’ had been. Identical, except for it’s inhabitant. 

This tank was not so bare as the first, a small plastic table with a single chair stood to one side, a jug of water and a stack of disposable cups the only things placed upon it. Near this, a basin of clean water, alongside a black bucket and a few neatly stacked rolls of toilet paper. Set into the middle of the floor was a small grate. None of this was as grim as what stood in the far corner, however. A single wire bed frame, adorned with a thin, stained mattress and a cellular blanket. And a thin unmoving body. 

Approaching the glass, Levi kept his eyes on the seemingly sleeping form. The shallow rise and fall of their chest through the plain white hospital gown seemed to confirm they were alive. He knocked twice. No response. He knocked again.

"Hey, kid." Uncurling from their position on the bed, they twisted round to face the sound. Male by the looks of him, brown hair, so dark it was almost black, clean but unkempt, as if it had only been washed with water for a very long time. His large dark eyes took a moment to focus. "Hey, what’s your name?" Across the room Levi could hear Mike riffling through documents again.

"Where’s your coat?" Swinging his bare feet off the bed, he stood. He was young, a little too thin, but not malnourished as he already stood almost a foot taller than Levi. He looked like he hadn’t slept properly in years. Tentatively, he asked another question. "You’re not one of the doctors?" 

"No. My name is Levi, I’m a member of a mutant group, I’m here to help you." The boy nodded, eyes slipping away from Levi and over to the plastic table. When nothing else was forth coming, Levi looked over at Mike, wordlessly asking if he was safe to proceed. He seemed safe enough, but sometimes it was the quiet ones who were on a hair trigger for violence. "What’s your name?" At this the boy looked up again, almost fearfully. 

What was he scared of? The question or… The fact that Levi was addressing him as a human being?

"Berthold. Berthold Hoover."

**Author's Note:**

> This is a slight edit and repost from a collection/drabble dump which has since been orphaned, but I wanted this with the rest of the au, so here you go.


End file.
